My Review of "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Season 1"

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Season 1 is streaming now exclusively on Disney Plus. This is an animated television show that some might groan at when hearing about it. There have been countless animated Spider-Man television shows and movies. How are they going to retell his origin story yet again? I didn't think they'd be able to pull it off yet here we are with another fun revision of his backstory.

This season starts off very different. We have Peter Parker at school and there seems to be an alien attack. Fortunately, Dr. Strange has it under control. Before Dr. Strange can take care of this hideous alien it attacks a student. At this time, Peter still doesn't have powers and he confronts the giant beast to protect this student. This act of heroism will not go unnoticed. This student happens to be a girl named Nico. She basically becomes Peter's best friend from then on.

Peter also gets bitten by a mysterious spider at the end of the incident. That's basically how he gets his powers. It's already far different from any of the Spider-Man episodes and movies we know, yet there's a familiarity to it. That's going to be the theme of this season. With the introduction of the multiverse it's a lot more accepting for differences throughout the Spider-Man franchise. This is yet another multiverse and yet it can still fit into the overall Marvel universe as we know it.

In this universe Normal Osborn is still an owner of a huge conglomerate known as Oscorp. This time we live in a world where all of the Marvel characters know one another. They make references to them and on the rare occasion interact with them. This is also quite different from what we're used to.

Still there are a lot of familiar characters throughout this show. Some of them might not look like what we think the character would look like but again there is a familiarity to it. This brings a very interesting dynamic to the show. You think anything can happen because you're somewhat familiar with those characters. You don't know if they're bad or good. That's part of the fun with this one. It uses our preconceived notion of these characters and makes our minds wander. We think something is going to happen but sometimes they avert our expectations.

Although this is a Spider-Man movie the main emphasis of this show is Peter's ability to manage his time. He constantly has to balance his friends, his family, his school, his work, and his superhero duties. All this is quite taxing on his mental health and he doesn't know where to go to talk to someone. This is an interesting dilemma because he can only talk to a select few people to keep his secret identity. One of those individuals that he confides in isn't exactly the best person to get advice from. He doesn't understand this because he's still young and trying to figure out life for himself.

This sense of naivety is fun because it's quite relatable. I understood where everyone's point of views were and it all made logical sense despite being a superhero show. Bringing real world life elements to a superhero show really brings them down to earth and allows us to relate to these characters. I don't see that happen a lot. Again, this is a common theme with the Spider-Man franchise. That's why this franchise is so popular. A lot of people are able to connect with it. This show isn't any different.

All of the characters are fleshed out and lived in. I can see how they all get along. The world feels lived in. It's almost as if you've been there all your life and feel that it's just natural.

Overall, I had a really good time with this show. They added a lot of twists and turns that I thoroughly enjoyed. This is definitely a nice new chapter in the franchise. The season ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, so I can't wait for the next season. I would recommend watching this and would probably watch it again. I give this season a 7.5 out of 10.